Miracast is a wireless display standard designed for mirroring a smartphone, tablet, or PC’s screen to a television without requiring any physical HDMI cables. It’s becoming more widespread with each passing day.

It’s worth noting that both Windows Phone and Windows RT also offer a “device encryption” feature. It works similarly to the feature that made its way over to the desktop version of Windows with Windows 8.1.

Application-specific passwords are more dangerous than they sound. Despite their name, they’re anything but application-specific. Each application-specific password is more like a skeleton key that provides unrestricted access to your account.

Many companies want to sell you “memory optimizers,” often as part of “PC optimization” programs. These programs are worse than useless — not only will they not speed up your computer, they’ll slow it down.

Chromebooks aren’t the ideal Minecraft laptops, that’s for sure. There’s no web-based or Chrome app version of Minecraft, which is written in Java. But Chromebook owners aren’t completely out-of-luck if they want to play Minecraft.

Forget the Windows Store. Microsoft is working on a Linux-style package management framework for Windows, and it’s included with Windows 10. It’s being tested with Chocolatey’s existing packages, and allows you to easily install desktop applications and other software.

If you have an iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch and a Mac, you can now record a video of your device’s screen thanks to a new feature in Mac OS X Yosemite. Android users can also record an Android device’s screen.

Many of Windows 10’s best features showed up in Mac OS X years ago, including virtual desktops, Expose-like window management, and a notification center. Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite has some other ideas Microsoft should copy for version 10 of its own operating system, too.

You’ll see badges like “Norton Secured,” “Microsoft Certified Partner,” and “BBB Accredited Business” all over the web — especially when downloading software. You shouldn’t blindly trust a website that displays such badges — they’re just images anyone can copy and paste.

Firewalls are an important piece of security software, and someone is always trying to sell you a new one. However, Windows has come with its own solid firewall since Windows XP SP2, and it’s more than good enough.

f.lux changes the color temperature of your computer’s display depending on the time of day. Everything’s normal during the day, but f.lux users warmer colors after sunset to match your indoor lighting.

The FBI isn’t happy about the latest versions of iOS and Android using encryption by default. FBI director James Comey has been blasting both Apple and Google. Microsoft is never mentioned — but Windows 8.1 uses encryption by default, too.

iPads and iPhones give you control over how your kids can use your devices. You can quickly lock your device to a certain app before handing it over or lock down an entire device with comprehensive parental controls.

You’ve probably heard all about how the Java browser plug-in is insecure. 91% of system compromises in 2013 were against that insecure Java plug-in. But Java isn’t the same thing as JavaScript — in fact, they’re not really related.

Never download a driver-updating utility. Like PC-cleaning programs, they try to charge you money for a service you don’t need. They do this by scaring you with threats of blue screens and system problems.

Do you get too many newsletters and other promotional emails? These emails aren’t technically “spam” — they’re from legitimate organizations. Thanks to the US CAN-SPAM act, every legitimate company offers a consistent way to unsubscribe from their newsletters.

You’ve probably given a few applications or websites access to your Google, Facebook, Twitter, Dropbox, or Microsoft account. Every application you’ve ever allowed keeps that access forever — or at least until you revoke it.

Did You Know?

One of the largest mosaic photographs in the world is the Northern Polar Mosaic created by NASA using images captured by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter; the total resolution of the final mosaic image is an enormous 680 gigapixels.

Daily Tech Term

Sniffing (a.k.a. Network Analyzing) is the process of intercepting and analyzing packets of data as they are being transmitted over a network. Sniffing can be done for legitimate purposes or as a way of stealing data from a network.

Packets of data can be analyzed in real time or stored for inspection at a later time if desired.